In the last few decades electronic voice recorders have been used to capture thoughts and messages, summarize ideas, and document events across a variety of business and personal applications. Storage and playback of audio recordings has traditionally taken place on analog media or devices. More recently, the use of digital media and devices has become possible. In recent years the use of magneto-optical, solid state and Micro Drive digital storage technologies has triggered growth in use of digital audio self-recorded content. Accordingly, the number of Digital Voice Recorders (DVRs) has been growing in the last few years. DVRs have provided various benefits over analog voice recorders.
DVRs incorporate file-based content transfer capability. This capability has been performed, for example, by USB connectivity or by compatibility with a digital file removable storage media such as Memory Stick™ available also on the PC, along with many other transfer mechanisms known to those skilled in the art. In recent years, digital voice recording capabilities have been expanded from dedicated voice recorders to other consumer electronic categories. These categories have included digital music players with MP3 or ATRAC3 file playback capabilities, Cellular phones or Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) devices with built in or external microphone input, and digital imaging devices capable of image, text, or video as well as audio recording. All of these and other devices may be considered DVR devices for purpose of this document as long as they can be adapted to download audio files recorded on the device to a computer (PC), or upload content created on a PC to a DVR.
In recent years the PC has taken an important role as an entertainment device in a large number of households, as well as a business tool in the home and office. The PC has been used not only as a data depository and processing center for information such as documents, spreadsheets and audiovisual content, but also as a center for communications, scheduling and lifestyle management. Handling contact, calendar, and task information on the PC has often been done via software packages known as Personal Information Manager (PIM) applications. PIM software packages have assisted in facilitating email communications, time management, and responsibility tracking, to name a few. In many cases these PIM applications have also served as a vehicle of communication between a professional, such as a medical doctor, attorney, or a business manager, and their administrator. This communication vehicle has been provided via sharing access rights to schedule, tasks, and email between two computers located in the same office or two computing devices using a computer network such as a local area network or the Internet.